Cal Delta Sealions

Hookset5 · Post by **Hookset5** » Sat Nov 05, 2016 11:42 am

Hello,

Ive been bass fishing in the delta for about 9 years. Ive been seeing more and more lately, as far east as whiskey slu and up river as tracy oasis.
What are we going to do about this? Is there a movement we can get involved with to send a message to fish and game or state officials? At the rate ive see these seals infiltrate the river system, there will be no large fish to put a hook into on the delta. They dont belong there and should be relocated or put down. what are our choices?

mark poulson · Post by **mark poulson** » Sat Nov 05, 2016 12:57 pm

Here's what I found online:

The U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) protects all marine mammals, including cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), pinnipeds (seals and sea lions), sirenians (manatees and dugongs), sea otters, and polar bears within the waters of the United States.

The Act makes it illegal to "take" marine mammals without a permit. This means people may not harass, feed, hunt, capture, collect, or kill any marine mammal or part of a marine mammal. The Act also formalized the marine mammal health and stranding response program to improve the response of stranding and unusual mortality events. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration web site gives the complete text of the Act.

bayscotter · Post by **bayscotter** » Sat Nov 05, 2016 8:55 pm

It's just another drawback of pumping water south to the desert to grow nuts for Asian countries to eat.

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Sun Nov 06, 2016 7:24 am

The sea lions are here to stay. They reside year round in downtown Sacramento. The numbers increase as they follow each fish migration up the river.

mark poulson · Post by **mark poulson** » Sun Nov 06, 2016 8:10 am

Charles wrote:The sea lions are here to stay. They reside year round in downtown Sacramento. The numbers increase as they follow each fish migration up the river.

It makes perfect sense. No sharks, no killer whales, lots of food. They are no dummies.

SObassman · Post by **SObassman** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 7:32 am

This same problem with sea lions is happening on the Columbia River at the Bonneville Dam. There is lots of media coverage about this because of the fact they are eating endangered salmon. At one time these animals were considered threatened or endangered ,which is why they cannot be harmed in any way. They do have protocols that allow them to be trapped, marked/tagged and relocated, and if they return a number of times other actions are taken. I am sure that most rivers on the west coast that have salmon have this problem. On the Rogue river at Gold beach I have seen them take a hooked salmon of an anglers line.

DDG · Post by **DDG** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 7:35 pm

more proof that hunting is good to keep certain animals population in control.

scott39 · Post by **scott39** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 8:43 pm

DDG wrote:more proof that hunting is good to keep certain animals population in control.

Damn straight when does human season start

DDG · Post by **DDG** » Sat Nov 12, 2016 11:08 am

scott39 wrote:
DDG wrote:more proof that hunting is good to keep certain animals population in control.
Damn straight when does human season start

Well if they are willing to exterminate other game fish just to enhance the Salmon population, why not? hah I'm all for letting nature take its course.

SObassman · Post by **SObassman** » Tue Jan 10, 2017 7:15 am

The answers to some questions from this older topic can be found in a featured article on the WB home page about what can be done to control sealions that prey on salmon.

Cooch · Post by **Cooch** » Tue Jan 10, 2017 8:13 am

Unfortunately HS5, they are part of the SF Bay/Delta ecosystem now, there's not much we, as anglers can do. We can be thankful though, that they are not as dangerous as predators in other systems like sharks, gators or water moccasins!

Lugnut · Post by **Lugnut** » Tue Jan 10, 2017 11:10 am

There was one in the Stockton turning basin on Saturday. I saw a group of birds, thought I was going to get on some stripers, then noticed they were only going crazy because the sea lion was shredding and tossing fish. We headed about 1/2 mile past it, next thing we know it's popping up a few feet from the boat.

Post by **WB Staff** » Tue Jan 10, 2017 11:26 am

The article that SOBassman mentioned

http://www.westernbass.com/article/salm ... on-removal

phatbass · Post by **phatbass** » Tue Jan 10, 2017 3:20 pm

Careful with these sea lions! I have a friend that had one jump on his boat a few years back and tried to bite him. No lie!

AnglersPursuit · Post by **AnglersPursuit** » Tue Jan 10, 2017 4:17 pm

Huge female in Franks this year outside of Russos. Looked right at home swimming between the reeds in 4ft of water. She was twice the size of all the others I have seen in there. I can ignore the pups, something like this swirling in the grass rods distance from the kayak ups the pucker!